US Green legislation starts to take shape
Environmental legislation is gaining traction in the USA.
Senators Joseph Lieberman and John Warner Jr introduced a bill in October to establish a domestic greenhouse gas trading scheme that would apply to transportation, electric power and manufacturing.
The bill calls for an aviation emissions study. It will review fuel use and other data to create an emissions inventory from factors including airport operations and ground equipment. The study will also determine actions the federal government "could take to encourage or require additional emissions reductions".
While the bill has bipartisan support, the US House has not introduced similar legislation.
Timing is perhaps the biggest deterrent.
Green Skies aviation environmental consulting firm chief Mike Miller says Congress is unlikely to pass significant new legislation during an election year. He doubts Congress would single out aviation because, he says, there has been no congressional initiative of substance over airlines and the environment during the past five years.
However, Miller expects more dialogue about the industry's environmental impact as European emission rules go into effect.
Sen Frank Lautenberg has already urged US airlines to cut fuel consumption and has suggested the industry adopt voluntary emissions trading similar to the European Union scheme.
The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming sent a letter about emissions reductions to the Environmental Protection Agency in January. "The EPA has a clear role to play in protecting Americans from the worst impacts of heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming. When it comes to the contribution of jet aviation to the looming threat of a climate catastrophe, the Bush administration's attempts to fly under the radar have increasingly become a flight from reality," committee chairman congressman Edward Markey says in a statement.
Markey also questioned the EPA's role in the White House's threat of legal action if the EU regulates aircraft emissions. The committee has not received a response it is likely to hold a hearing on the topic by spring, a spokesman says.
However, Green Skies' Miller does not expect much from the EPA. "I don't expect EPA to have any environmental action of any substance this year because the EPA has been more business-friendly than environmentally friendly in this administration," he says.
Meanwhile, several state and local governments have launched a campaign to impose greenhouse gas emissions standards on US airlines. Five US states - California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico and Pennsylvania - plus Washington DC and New York City, submitted a petition to the EPA in December. The petition, also signed by Southern California's South Coast Air Quality Management District, suggests the EPA impose emissions limitations and/or operational practices on airlines.
The petition came months after former Federal Aviation Administration administrator Marion Blakey and Boeing Commercial Airplanes boss Scott Carson warned against the dangers of outsiders defining environmental policy for the US aviation industry, following the example of the EU.
Meanwhile, Oakland, California, law firm Earthjustice has filed a petition requesting the EPA to require cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft arriving in or departing from the USA and calls for the use of alternative fuels and more efficient aircraft design.
Source: Flight International
